WINTER has returned to the Shoalhaven and surrounding areas with a vengeance with strong cold winds, lowering temperatures and also causing plenty of work for emergency services crews.
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Strong westerly winds lashed the coast with gusts up to 85 kilometres an hour hitting Nowra, 76km/h at Kiama and 83 km/h at Ulladulla.
Nowra SES has had 16 calls for assistance, with unit controller Mark Kielly saying teams were out on Thursday night and early Friday morning, mostly for trees down, a few loose roofs and a fence blown over.
"Jobs have come in from North Nowra, Culburra, Callala," he said "and with the winds hanging around, we can expect more Friday."
He again reminded residents to secure things like trampolines and outdoor furniture.
In Ulladulla a tall eucalypt tree blocked the road to the Mollymook Golf Club car park.
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The Rural Fire Service was called to a number of fires in the Shoalhaven over the past 12 hours.
At about 6.20pm on Thursday, August 8, crews were called to a section of bush alight on Beach Road at Berry.
Later, at about 9.30pm crews from Shoalhaven Heads, Cambewarra, Broughton Vale, Berry, West Nowra, Kangaroo Valley and Fire and Rescue NSW crews were called to reports of a structure fire at Bangalee, North Nowra.
West Nowra RFS said the fire was caused by an escaped pile burn which set a small trailer of wood on fire.
As this was happening, another fire was located further down the same street which turned out to be a large pile of tree stumps alight.
To the south and crews were called to Woodburn Road at Moreton to extinguish an area of bushland alight.
At about 2.55am on Friday, crews were called to extinguish another area of bushland near Little Forest Road, Little Forest and also had a one hectare bushfire at Washburton Road.
At about 4.10am, the RFS received reports of a structure fire at Jervis Bay Road, Falls Creek. The fire turned out to be another escaped pile burn.
Power outages were reported at Berry, the Bay and Basin and Ulladulla areas.
Around 70 Endeavour Energy customers were affected at Ashworth Place, Beach Road and Banggari Street at Berry due to tree damage, while power outages affecting 840 customers were reported at Basin View, Bewong, Tomeriong and Wandandian.
Almost 2000 customers were affected by a power outage in Mollymook and Ulladulla about 2.30am. Power was restored in the morning.
The winds that lashed the area were constant.
In Nowra, winds ranged between 48km/h to 61km/h from 8.50pm on Thursday with gusts between 83 and 85km/h recorded between 1am and 1.30am Friday.
An 85km/h gust was reached at 4pm Thursday, 80km/h at 12.50am Friday and 76km/h between 8am and 8.32am.
Nowra's temperature hit a high of 16 degrees on Thursday dropping to 9.4 degrees overnight but the wind chill factor made it feel much less, hitting -1 at 11.30pm Thursday, -.8 at 8.40am Friday and .1 at 9am when the temperature was actually 12.5 degrees.
Ulladulla recorded constant winds between 22km/h and 61km/h from 10am Thursday.
An 83km/h gust was recored at 2am, 78km/h gusts at 12.30am and 2.30am, 70km/h at 3am, 69km/h at 4am and 63km/h at 5am.
Temperatures ranged from a high of 15 on Thursday down to 11.3 overnight, but the wind chill factor lowered the temps, feeling like -1.2 degrees at 1.55am, 1.14 degrees at 4.10am and 1.7 degrees at 6.50am.
Further north and winds built up at Kiama from midday staying constantly above the 30km/h range until 6pm where there was a lull until 10pm before picking up again from midnight with winds ranging from 24 to 52 km/h.
A gust of 76.8 was recorded at 1am, 76km/h at 3am, 74km/h at 5.20am and 72km/h at 7am.
Temperatures ranged from 18 down to 12.8 overnight, with the windchill again a factor, dropping temperatures to feel like 1 degree at 8.10am and 3.6 degrees at 3.20am Friday.
And unfortunately for the region, the news isn't likely to get any better with the winds to continue across the weekend.
A severe weather warning for damaging winds has been issued for the South Coast and Illawarra, with winds from the west averaging 60 to 70 km/h with peak gusts in excess of 90 km/h.
The warning comes as a series of cold fronts cross the state during the next three days.
Nowra will range in temperatures from 10 to 15 degrees on Friday, 6 to 14 degrees on Saturday, 7-15 Sunday and 7-17 Monday with a slight risk of frost next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Ulladulla is expected to range in temperature between 11-14 degrees Friday, 7-13 Saturday, 8-14 Saturday and 10-16 Sunday.
Kiama will range in temperatures of 11 to 16 degrees on Friday, 8-14 Saturday, 9-15 Sunday and 9-17 Monday.
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Zoe Cartwright
Sam Strong
Robert Crawford
Robert Crawford is a senior journalist at the South Coast Register, for Australian Community Media . Everyone's got a story, what's yours? Email robert.crawford@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Robert Crawford is a senior journalist at the South Coast Register, for Australian Community Media . Everyone's got a story, what's yours? Email robert.crawford@austcommunitymedia.com.au
